The Quarter Finals: Croatia, Argentina, Morocco, and France through

[astraguy]

Not making a sub till the 80minute was ridiculous and then not bringing on rashford till the 85th.according to Ben jacobs tuchel/ poch are interested 

 

 

Edited December 11, 2022 by astraguy

[AJ9]

Yeah I mean, @Yorkie’s post is spot on. The look at the stats people, I get it, but it’s all a bit “but we won the passing”. At the end of the day, we’re out, again, when we could have been braver. It’s basically like game of thrones - the viper vs the mountain every time we come up against a top side. It’s irritating as fuck.

[Doctor Zaius]

That was our chance for the World Cup like. Just like the Euros were last year. Yet again we've failed to capitalise.

 

I was convinced had Kane scored that pen, instead of blasting it over, we'd have won but now I'm not so convinced. We let them back into it at 1-1. We didn't capitalise on our possession and take our chances. 

[Yorkie]

3 minutes ago, AJ9 said:

Yeah I mean, @Yorkie’s post is spot on. The look at the stats people, I get it, but it’s all a bit “but we won the passing”. At the end of the day, we’re out, again, when we could have been braver. It’s basically like game of thrones - the viper vs the mountain every time we come up against a top side. It’s irritating as fuck.

 

That was the very scenario I had in my head.

[rgk_lfc]

10 hours ago, toon25 said:

FIFA couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery. That they could engineer some sort of situation that involved any sort of outcome that resulted in a particular team winning the WC by virtue of shite refereeing decisions is beyond me.

 

 

Not saying that. But FIFA could ensure from quarter finals onwards, avoid referees from the eight countries still in the competition. It should be reasonably easy to implement.

[The Prophet]

I wonder if a keeper with regular sized arms keeps the first strike out.

[toon25]

Have to say, watching Ronaldo huff his way through that second half was a joy to behold.

[Abacus]

I agree that for all his strengths, Southgate has flaws that can't be overlooked, and I also think that in the last two tournaments he and his teams were found out. 

 

The argument that he got us to a semi final and then a final previously is definitely undermined by the fact we got an incredibly lucky run in the knock out stages, and were effectively at home in the Euros. But then, when we finally lost those games, the disappointment was more that we were out-managed in the end and lost both those games with barely a whimper. There was a feeling of missed opportunity and that we could have done more if the team played to their strengths.

 

As for flaws, I often disagree with some of his squad and team selections, but there's probably not a manager alive who can keep everyone happy with those, so I'll leave that one. It's his tactics and passive in-game management which are the real criticism, i.e. the things you need to have to actually win something.

 

However, I don't feel that way about this tournament. 

 

He is still too cautious at times for me, but in fairness he did make some tactical tweaks in games which worked. Against France, some will point out his odd substitution of Saka, but in general I thought the team played well. In fact if anything I thought they edged it against a very good France team and probably should have won.

 

So this time I don't come away disappointed that we could have made a better effort and fading away when it really mattered. 

 

Instead, I come away rueing a missed penalty and a refereeing performance that was consistently poor all night. Saka in particular got nothing from him. It's not just sour grapes - these were potentially big decisions. One could have chalked off the opening France goal, another could have given another penalty or at the very least a dangerous free kick right on the edge of the box. Nothing Southgate could have done about any of that.

 

So oddly, whilst I don't rate him much for the previous campaigns where England finished higher, it's this tournament where we only got to the quarters but where I'm less critical. He seemed to have addressed some of his previous mistakes to me. 

 

If he has the drive and energy for one more tournament, I'd be tempted to give him a final crack at the Euros unless an outstanding candidate turns up and becomes available in the meantime.
 

[Kimbo]

Still feel a bit sick. I considered France the best side in the competition from the start and we should’ve had them. We would’ve been the best side in the semis IMO, which I never thought I would say about England.

 

On Southgate, I’m happy to stick with him until the Euros for lack of a better alternative. I do think he needs to tweak the squad and first team a bit. I’d like to see Philips replace Rice as the DM and we need to seek out new CB’s. Fuck knows how much football Maguire will be playing in the future and our backup options are poor. Players like Mount, Grealish, and Sterling need to be put on notice, they haven’t been good enough lately. Maddison and Barnes should be given a decent amount of playing time before the euros.

 

 

Edited December 11, 2022 by Kimbo

[samptime29]

Feel horribly low today. Hungover, England pain and working 10am to 8pm. Negged.

[gbandit]

Cannot even imagine being hungover and having to work, just couldn’t do it to myself 

[Shearergol]

I hope Phillips gets some proper game time at Man City - he’s needed in this midfield. Think Willock has a real chance of pushing for the next squad too. Not convinced Gallagher is a better option than him. 

[gbandit]

Was thinking about Willock before, he really just needs to add consistency to his game. If he does, he’ll become an England player but most likely squad than ever first team 

[samptime29]

11 minutes ago, gbandit said:

Cannot even imagine being hungover and having to work, just couldn’t do it to myself 

 

Work from home but yeah still shite. 

[dembabah]

Bringing Saka off was ridiculous, i think even the most staunch Southgate fan has to admit that.

[astraguy]

 

[Shak]

Tempting fate a bit there, like

[Super Duper Branko Strupar]

1 hour ago, samptime29 said:

Feel horribly low today. Hungover, England pain and working 10am to 8pm. Negged.

 

What do you do to work 12 hour shifts from home on a Sunday?

[AJ9]

As much as I dislike the argies, do want Messi to win this now like

[Kid Icarus]

20 minutes ago, hakka said:

I still can't believe Kane ballooned that pen so high and off target. 

 

It's pretty much like Shearer doing it. There aren't many players I'd pick over Kane to take a pen

[Collage]

1 minute ago, Kid Icarus said:

It's pretty much like Shearer doing it. There aren't many players I'd pick over Kane to take a pen

[Kimbo]

Before the game yesterday I was watching Shearer talk about what it's like to take 2 penalties in a world cup game. Kane decided to force it IMO, he thought he needed to do something more to beat the keeper a second time.

 

 

[Conjo]

 

Edit: I was laughing with schadenfreude through the whole video. Turns out, looking at the comments, that the video wasn't made as a joke

 

 

Edited December 11, 2022 by Conjo

[dorty]

24 minutes ago, Kimbo said:

Before the game yesterday I was watching Shearer talk about what it's like to take 2 penalties in a world cup game. Kane decided to force it IMO, he thought he needed to do something more to beat the keeper a second time.

 

 

This. Kane dithered about it, he should have just blasted it to the keeper's right like he did the first one. I play a load of golf and one of the worst things you can do is not commit to your shot, to be caught in two minds. That's what happened to Kane.

 

 

Edited December 11, 2022 by dorty

[dorty]

2 minutes ago, Conjo said:

 

Netflix doc coming soon...